A new online Anime distribution company has launched:

www.bosttv.com
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2007-11-26/bost-launches-global-anime-video-on-demand-from-japan

So far they’re offering Hanbun no tsuki ga noboru sora (great series), Shinigami no Ballad (to be honest i thought it was terrible), and Keitai Shoujo.

All subtitled (in English) only no dubs, all streamed, and generally will be about £1 per episode (£26 for an entire series… win). Obviously you don’t get to keep what you watch, but then again you don’t get to keep what you watch when you pay for cable either… unless you record it yourself.

However at the moment, only Keitai Shoujo is available in the UK (or will be come December), the other 2 are only available in Australia/New Zeland, but they have a feedback form to request series be made available in your territory (i suggest you send feedback!).

Now this is a really great development i think… finally a company with the potential to tap the untapped market of fansub watchers, tens of thousands of downloaders not buying anything (ignore DVD’s for the moment), and why not? Because there isn’t anyone selling them anything that’s why. This company could potentially change all that.

I’d gladly pay for officially subtitled stuff at that price (especially if it’s going to come out pretty soon after air date), i don’t really care for buying DVD’s when i generally only watch things once.

I urge everyone to show this start-up some support, go over there, register an account, make some noise on their forums. etc. etc.

Also, one final point of interest about Keitai Shoujo:

“Keitai Shoujo is a short 6 part series where you the viewer will be able to determine which girl Hiro will eventually end up with. Each week introduces a new potential girlfriend for Hiro. And every week, a poll will be run to see which girl is the most popular.

The 6th and final epilogue will be decided on based on the results of the polling. So keep checking back each week!

All episodes of Keitai Shoujo are free until the end of February 2008.“